Have you tried becoming a pro mini painter?

[tychobi]

What does it take to make money at painting minis? I have taken on my first commission and it has gone very well. I am going to need to get faster for sure but I wonder if any other folks who have some experience at painting professionally could share some tips and tricks or point out any pitfalls that I can avoid?

 

I dream of making a part time job out of it and feel like the local 40k and dnd fans would keep me busy. I fear burn out, unsatisfied customers, shipping hassles, and spatter from my air bush.

[Son of Sacrifice]

I've done a lot of commission work over the last 3 years. Here are some things I follow:

 

Burn out is a real thing. Avoid taking on jobs that you've got no interest in.

 

Try to put a time limit on each piece and price it to what your time is worth. Be willing to pass on jobs if the customer wants to haggle price, that's never a good sign in my experience.

 

Remember that building takes a long time and can be a lot of work. Many customers neglect to consider this, and don't expect to pay for it. I price an hour of building in the same way I price an hour of painting.

 

Don't over promise, set a quality level that you're comfortable with achieving, and avoid committing to going beyond this. Sometimes you will be your own biggest obstacle to following this rule.

 

Have a clear plan for each piece and know when to stop. It's easy to underappreciate your own work. The customer will almost always be happy with your efforts.

 

Get things down in writing. Ask your customer to be clear about what they want and confirm everything before going ahead. Sometimes people insist on giving me artistic freedoms, and in these instances I almost always go to the box art. This is a job, nothing like my personal projects that can afford to be unfocused.

 

Don't forget the cost of materials. If I have a big job I often add a surcharge for things like primer, varnish, basing materials and any colors I might not own. I've never had any complaints about this.

 

Deadlines can and will fail to be met. Don't beat yourself up about it, and don't start apologizing.

[tychobi]

I've done a lot of commission work over the last 3 years. Here are some things I follow:

 

Burn out is a real thing. Avoid taking on jobs that you've got no interest in.

 

Try to put a time limit on each piece and price it to what your time is worth. Be willing to pass on jobs if the customer wants to haggle price, that's never a good sign in my experience.

 

Remember that building takes a long time and can be a lot of work. Many customers neglect to consider this, and don't expect to pay for it. I price an hour of building in the same way I price an hour of painting.

 

Don't over promise, set a quality level that you're comfortable with achieving, and avoid committing to going beyond this. Sometimes you will be your own biggest obstacle to following this rule.

 

Have a clear plan for each piece and know when to stop. It's easy to underappreciate your own work. The customer will almost always be happy with your efforts.

 

Get things down in writing. Ask your customer to be clear about what they want and confirm everything before going ahead. Sometimes people insist on giving me artistic freedoms, and in these instances I almost always go to the box art. This is a job, nothing like my personal projects that can afford to be unfocused.

 

Don't forget the cost of materials. If I have a big job I often add a surcharge for things like primer, varnish, basing materials and any colors I might not own. I've never had any complaints about this.

 

Deadlines can and will fail to be met. Don't beat yourself up about it, and don't start apologizing.

Wow thanks! This is really good advice.

 

Do you take on multiple jobs at the same time to or stick to finishing one before moving on? Also do you find customers respond best to hourly or task based pricing? I love to convert models and worry about how to fairly price such work.

 

Thanks again for the sage advice and hope you get those inspring jobs that make painting trim for 6 hours fun!

[Rik Lightstar]

The question of how to price comes up a lot in conversations about commission painting work.

 

The reality is that you are selling your time, so you need to calculate your pricing based on time or you won't make enough money for your work to justify doing it. Be honest with yourself about how long things are likely to take you.

 

If you can paint a squad in a day and you charge 100 currency units (pounds, dollars, euros whatever) for a single unit. Then after deducting your costs you're earning about 80cu a day.

 

Now, you may prefer to present your charges based on types of model, this is easier on your potential clients. But that's just marketing.

 

Rik

[tychobi]

The question of how to price comes up a lot in conversations about commission painting work.

 

The reality is that you are selling your time, so you need to calculate your pricing based on time or you won't make enough money for your work to justify doing it. Be honest with yourself about how long things are likely to take you.

 

If you can paint a squad in a day and you charge 100 currency units (pounds, dollars, euros whatever) for a single unit. Then after deducting your costs you're earning about 80cu a day.

 

Now, you may prefer to present your charges based on types of model, this is easier on your potential clients. But that's just marketing.

 

Rik

Solid advice thanks. Its going to be a journey! My thinking right now is to charge based on task and try to create processes that make me efficient compared to the average hobbyist. I source in bulk for terrain making already but will need to get better at mixing my own washes and such.

 

What kind of hourly rate USD would you think as fair for clean quality paint work? Only 1 best painted trophy but I do nice stuff!

[Indefragable]

I do not do painting commissions, but a few bits of advice that will help:

 

-base your efforts on your “Minimum Viable Product” (MVP). Think of a scenario where you have to have a model or squad done in say a week, drop dead, no excuses. Think about how you would accomplish that while living the life you want to live (aka actually seeing your family, going to the gym, putting in a few extra hours at your day job or such, watching a game or two, etc...). What is the standard of that painted squad? What does it involve and what does it look like? The quality will  +/- greatly depending on your available time and excitement for the project, but you have to plan for the worst and base everything off of that. That’s just business advice in general. The key is as the others above have said: always better to underpromise and over deliver than the other way around. 
 

-do market research on pricing. Easiest way to do that is be a customer yourself and search for commission painting services. You will rather quickly find what you like/don’t like and that for the most part, things are in the same rough ballpark. You will also see lots of places do different tiers of quality: just get it on the table, hey that looks good, for the collection, signature quality (my wording). What I would add is that there are national/international painting services (google) and then local ones, The prices and expectations are different, and so if you’re looking to support your local scene, be prepared to command more localized pricing. “Mom+Pop” vs international conglomerate, so to speak. 
 

-classic rule of project mgt is to round up by 20%. Give yourself an extra time and a little extra on the fee to account for the unexpected. If Nuln Oil suddenly becomes hard to find, do you itemize that cost to your client or just handle the difference on your own? You don’t actually have to mark up an extra 20%, but the point is you should make enough even after having to get a few supplies or such that it’s still worth your while and motivating to you.

 

-roll 3D6. Based on the results, buy a random unit from a random army and paint it the colors of a random official subfaction. If you’re still motivated after that, then you will make it. We may  daydream about getting paid to paint Korsarro Khan when in reality you’re frequently asked to paint teal Tau piranhas. 

 

-never be afraid to say no. It only gets worse if you commit to something and then find out it’s not gonna work 1/2 way into it.

 

Again, I am not a commission painter, but I know a few well and I also have some experience starting a (small) business. The above is meant as overall guidelines to help you think.

[Rik Lightstar]

 

The question of how to price comes up a lot in conversations about commission painting work.

 

The reality is that you are selling your time, so you need to calculate your pricing based on time or you won't make enough money for your work to justify doing it. Be honest with yourself about how long things are likely to take you.

 

If you can paint a squad in a day and you charge 100 currency units (pounds, dollars, euros whatever) for a single unit. Then after deducting your costs you're earning about 80cu a day.

 

Now, you may prefer to present your charges based on types of model, this is easier on your potential clients. But that's just marketing.

 

Rik

Solid advice thanks. Its going to be a journey! My thinking right now is to charge based on task and try to create processes that make me efficient compared to the average hobbyist. I source in bulk for terrain making already but will need to get better at mixing my own washes and such.

 

What kind of hourly rate USD would you think as fair for clean quality paint work? Only 1 best painted trophy but I do nice stuff!

I'm not in the US so I have no idea on hourly rates over there. You want to be sure you're earning more than you would with a part time job at Starbucks or similar for sure.

 

 

The big key for you will be process efficiency, both in how you do things and the timings.

 

Batch work is always quicker, so if you get a commission for a small army build EVERYTHING, then undercoat EVERYTHING, then all your base coats preferably by airbrush.

 

A hairdryer is an essential for saving wasted time, also try to for example undercoat before your lunch break, then that drying time isn't wasted.

 

There's a good reason why most pro painters offer "levels" of work, it removes negotiation from the process. Client wants it cheaper? They go for the "bronze standard". They want more details on characters? That's fine, then they want those at "gold standard". It manages expectations.

 

Rik